


The Sea Called

by R0wan



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Selkie story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-02
Updated: 2016-03-02
Packaged: 2018-05-24 08:44:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6148039
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/R0wan/pseuds/R0wan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She left her son, but she left him with a love of the sea.</p><p>Based on Selkie stories.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Sea Called

"Oh, my dear boy," she murmered as she bent over his sleeping form, brushing a stray curl from his forehead then placiing a kiss in its place. "How I wish I could take you with me."

She looked down at her son sadly, but with hope in her eyes. Perhaps one day he would find her, and they could be a family again. Her heart ached for him, she hated having to leave, but she couldn't stay. The sea called to her, and she was so, so far away already. The years she had spent here had been so happy, and she had been blessed with this boy, sadly he did not share her gift. She hoped one day he would share her love of the sea.

How she wished things were different with his father, that she could have taken her family with her, but her other family were calling to her, as they had been for years. She sighed, fixing this precious memory as she had so many others; the first time he opened his eyes and she saw their sparkling green, like sea-glass. His first smile had been then, and his laughter and joy had followed her for the past five years. It was a time she would never regret. Sadly, she turned to go, whispering as she left the door, "Do not forget me, my son, never forget that I am always with you."

* * *

The sea air brushed his hair away from his eyes, and brought faint colour to his cheeks. He smiled into it, smelling the freshness of the sea, and the faint tang from its depths of seaweed and salt. Adrien immediately loved the way he felt here. Grinning, he scrambled down the rocks and onto the sand, feeling it squish slightly under his feet. It was so fresh here, a whole new world. He looked around, checking carefully to see no-one was watching, before reaching down and undoing his trainers, wanting suddenly to feel the sand between his toes. As he wriggled them into its coolness, feeling the grains make way for his toes, he threw his arms out to the side and grinned, trying to do a twirl but finding the sand hindered his movement and he wobbled a little before coming back to his balance.

The sound of the waves calmed him, and he walked closer, hearing the swish was somehow like a lullaby, and he felt like there should be words to the song he was hearing. The sea singing, that thought made him smile, how silly to think that. It reminded him of when he was younger, when he believed in the small stories like that, that adults would tell to keep children quiet. Yet his heart wouldn't let him off with that, and insisted there was something more. He wandered closer to the water, then had to jump back suddenly as a wave came too close. That must have been the seventh wave he thought, remembering having read somewhere that every seventh wave was supposed to be bigger than the others. Carefully, he moved a little closer, but out of the wave-line marked on the sand, and began counting them. Sure enough, every seventh wave was a little bigger than the others. He was strangely pleased at the thought.

Carefully he stepped forward a little more, so the edge of the next wave could wash over his feet, careful not to get his trousers wet. It was deliciously cold _,_ once he got used to the first shock of it. The water was smooth and soothing over his feet, washing away the grains of sand that had stuck to the tops of his feet. He wriggled his toes again. The call of the gulls and other seabirds brough his head up from his feet, and drew his eyes to the horizon. Stretching and seemingly endless, it faded into shades of blue at the edges, blurred and almost like an artist had smeared their hand across the whole horizon to make it last forever. The birds wheeled above him, and he listened to their haunting cries, suddenly remembering a story his mother had once told him, that the gulls were the souls of sailors lost at sea. Hearing their strange cries for the first time, and the way the wind seemed to take the cries and echo them certainly seemd to justify that belief. He shivered suddenly, not that he was cold, but at the thought of all those birds wheeling above him being lost sailors. He shook his head to clear his mind.

Some rocks in the distance caught his eyes, the tops covered in seaweed and shells, from high tide he guessed, though they were only partially covered by water now. Something moving in the water just behind them made him look closer, just as he was moving his eyes back to the water, it changed direction and came around just to the side of the rocks he'd been looking at. Squinting against the sun, he tried to look closer before realising it was a seal. He'd never seen one before and immediately wanted a closer look. The seal never moved, staying exactly where it was, and he in turn was watched by its soulful eyes, long lashes never blinking as it stared at this human suddenly in its space. Adrien smiled gently at it, shielding his eyes against the sun. As if he'd somehow broken a spell it was under, it took a deep breath and disappeared beneath the waves. He sighed disappointedly, looking for it, but it never appeared again.

The sudden coldness of the breeze reminded him that it was getting late in the afternoon and he should probably leave soon. Sighing, he looked down and wriggled his toes in the cool water and sand one last time, before traipsing out and shuddering a little at the newfound sensation of small bits of sand clinging to his now-wet feet as he made his way back up the beach. Finding a patch of sea grass, he pulled some out and began to brush the sand from his feet, pausing when he realised the ends of the grass had made some tiny cuts on his feet. Frowning he re-folded the grass in his hands so that the ends no longer brushed his feet and continued, pleased when no more of the tiny stinging cuts appeared. Putting his shoes back on felt like losing his freedom. Something about the beach was just so refreshing and unlike anything he'd experienced before. As he stood again, he remember his father once saying that his mother had loved the sea, and they would go trips there nearly every week. Smiling and looking back one last time, Adrien could see why. He had loved his day here, and he swore he would come back again, as often as he could to just bask in its peace and soothing waves.

Turning to go, he waved a fond farewell, saying quietly to himself, "I'll be back soon, don't forget me."

* * *

A lone seal watched him from behind the rocks, it almost seemed to smile as it bobbed up and down with the waves, before turning once again and disappearing underneath them.

  


  


  


 

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fanfic. They are way harder to write than just stories. 
> 
> It's based around the selkie stories found in Scotland and the UK. It was a common theme in these for the selkies (people who can be humans or seals) to leave their family and return to the sea. 
> 
> I also took the myth of seagulls being the souls of drowned sailors from Scotland/Uk. It seemed to fit the story.
> 
> Hope you like! :)


End file.
